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UT celebrates 75 years

The school thrives - academically and financially.

TAMPA - Frederic Spaulding had a dream for a great little university in the heart of Tampa.

But his timing was terrible.

It was 1930, the start of the Great Depression, when people's need for food and shelter trumped their desire for a college degree. There was little chance of securing loans for a new university.

Spaulding pressed on anyway. "The decision to begin was one of the most daring ever made," he would later write.

On Oct. 5, 1931, the junior college that would become the University of Tampa opened with 62 students. Classes were held in the basement of Hillsborough High School.

Seventy-five years later, nearly 5,400 students roam UT's downtown campus.

Residence halls, parking garages, classrooms and athletic facilities worth $150-million have been built in recent years, and another $50-million in projects is on the drawing board.

Not bad for a small private college that, just 12 years ago, was in danger of disappearing into Tampa's history books because of shrinking enrollment and a ballooning deficit.

"We were just kind of hanging by our fingernails," said former UT student Al Austin, a powerful Republican fundraiser who led the schools's $83-million capital campaign. "Now they have a brilliant future."

Austin and others give much of the credit to UT president Ronald L. Vaughn. He took over in January 1995, when the school's many woes seemed insurmountable.

"Ron turned the university around," Austin said. "It's a symbol of the city of Tampa - a campus that was kind of disheveled and dog-eared, and now it's a bright, shining star."

* * *

UT has long been perceived as a refuge for rich kids who couldn't get into Ivy League or prestigious public schools. Yet the private school celebrating its 75th anniversary today frequently struggled to balance its own books.

Within two years of the school's opening, Spaulding turned his tiny institution into Tampa's first four-year college, moving it from the Hillsborough High basement to the old Tampa Bay Hotel.

Henry B. Plant's once magnificent building was run-down and expensive to maintain. Bills piled up. Creditors hounded Spaulding to fork over money UT did not have.

He quit in 1936, having grown weary of worrying about bills. Future presidents came and went, often hobbled by the school's many money problems.

Bruce Samson inherited a $1.4-million deficit when he assumed the presidency from Richard Cheshire in 1986. When Samson left a few years later, UT's finances were finally in the black.

Then came president David Ruffer, and within three years, black turned back into red. Enrollment declined significantly under Ruffer, and with it the tuition revenues that make up much of UT's operating budget.

To deal with a more than $2-million deficit, Ruffer laid off 19 faculty members, cut the pay of senior administrators and trimmed benefits for all employees. Then he eliminated programs such as philosophy and dance.

The situation was so dire, there was talk that UT would fold and the University of South Florida would take over the riverfront campus. Ruffer resigned at the end of 1994.

Within days, trustees named Vaughn, then dean of the popular business college, as UT's 10th president.

His tasks were numerous and daunting: Boost enrollment, which was down to fewer than 1,500. Improve faculty morale. Deal with the budget deficit left over from Ruffer's tenure. Enhance academic programs. Make sure students were getting the advising and other support they needed to graduate.

"We have focused on constantly getting better each year," Vaughn, 60, said this week as the university prepared for its anniversary festivities. "And when you do that for 12 years, you can look at an awful lot of progress."

So much progress, it's hard to believe that UT's future was ever in doubt.

Under Vaughn's watch, the campus has grown from 60 acres to 100.

Enrollment has more than tripled, and graduation ceremonies regularly set records for degrees awarded.

With enrollment up, UT is using the revenue from students' nearly $20,000-a-year tuition to add new degree programs and hire additional faculty. There are now more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, including eight that were added this year.

There are 440 faculty members, including more than 100 full-time positions added in the past decade.

The university is ranked No. 36 on U.S. News & World Report's 2006 list of universities in the South that offer master's degrees.

That's below other private Florida colleges, including Rollins and Embry Riddle, but higher than public colleges such as the University of North Florida.

Construction cranes dot the campus, as workers finish residence halls and other projects.

UT's first capital campaign, launched with a goal of just $20-million, ended in 2004 having raised $83-million.

"It sort of validated our direction and our hopes and the credibility of who we are," Vaughn said.

* * *

Some students complain that UT is growing too fast. They want the school to raise its admissions standards.

"It's not very hard to get in here," said sophomore Lauren Boisvert, 19, of Rhode Island, while eating a late breakfast near her residence hall last week. "If they want to be like the southern Ivy League, they need to raise the standards and stop accepting students just because Mommy and Daddy can pay."

Vaughn said UT is not the rich kids' campus people think it is. Nor is it a cakewalk to get in and graduate, he said.

The average SAT score of incoming freshmen, 1,095, is 100 points higher than it was 20 years ago.

Erin Gallagher, 19, of Boston is majoring in marketing and said her classes are "very challenging."

She likes the small classes and the accessibility of the professors, who don't have the pressure to publish research and write grant proposals that the faculty members at a major research institution such as USF do.

UT's student retention rate has risen 15 percent during Vaughn's tenure. He credits new programs for advising and tutoring students and a freshman-year program aimed at easing the transition from high school to college.

He considers his students "a fairly middle class bunch" and points out that UT gives away $27-million in scholarships and aid each year to more than 85 percent of the student body. As UT increases its endowment, it can give even more.

"The financial profile is probably about the same as with students at a public university," Vaughn said. "It's just that some families want the kind of education a private independent university can offer, and they're willing to sacrifice more."

Courtney Wrinkles, 20, was an "Army brat" living in Italy when she saw information about UT in a magazine about private colleges. Now a third-year biology student, she hopes administrators raise admissions standards so that her degree is more prestigious in the future.

Nonetheless, she feels she made the right choice in attending UT.

"Because it's so small, you make so many connections here," she said. "It fit everything I wanted."

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at (813) 226-3403 or svansickler@sptimes.com.